samedi 23 avril 2011

Italy - Pros and Cons

I will do my wonderful glowing travel report later (complete with photos...) but for the moment here are my 'cons' about my Italy trip so far... Well, my first impressions after 2.5 days.

Cons
•  I thought the French smoked a lot but the Italians definitely outdo them!
•  Because of this or maybe there are a lot more cars (?) the air pollution seems to be much worse.
•  Because of that (or something else?  I don't know what) I have had a serious allergic reaction to Italy. I just sneeze and have a runny nose non-stop and my eyes and throat itch like crazy too. Histamines don't work for me.
•  Not only that, I had an allergy to the sun (link here to all the various forms and names of this 'disease'). It was super hot and sunny the last 2 days and today it became cold(er) and cloudy. Not that it is specific to Italy but I never had it in any other country besides Australia before... I have these horrible little red itchy bumps on my arms (which look and feel like shaving rash - not that I've ever shaved my arms but you get what I mean!) My skin is so white it's embarrassing. However I don't tan OR burn, I just get this horrible itchiness!
•  Queue cutting! If there is one thing that gets my goat (is that a saying?) it's queue jumpers!! ARGH. I don't care if you are old, or in a hurry, or whatever... at least, ask if you can jump the queue instead of just pushing in surreptitiously. Ever since I was really young I despised this awful rude habit.
•  The shopkeepers are not very nice. I tend to judge a city a lot by how I am treated by people in shops or places like train stations or restaurants or wherever. I have met some kind and helpful strangers but noone who actually works in the service area has been like that to me.

I think that's about it...

Pros
•  Well if one thought French had it all in terms of architectural beauty, I'm sorry to say that Italy sure outdoes them. So much so that the French (as I have been told) LOVE to take holidays in Italy. When I first arrived in Turin/Torino (my first stop) I got goosebumps by the sheer size and awesome of all these buildings and the history carried on them. There is just so much beauty and history I can't comprehend it all. My friend told me about Stendhal Syndrome and I can't say that I've had it yet but I can see where they are coming from when I think about Italy...
•  The food of course! The food is not only amazingly good but it's even cheaper than in France (when I thought that that was already heaps cheaper than in Australia).
•  The shopping/fashion. It's a female shopaholics dream. I find all the clothes, shoes, underwear, swimwear, and handbags just utterly amazing and beautiful and for their quality and style, not even that expensive. I want to buy everything but I have no means of carrying it.
•  The shops seem a lot more 'international' than in France too meaning you get all the cool brands.. not that it means anything to me since I don't have much time or money to go shopping! All I've bought really are little souvenirs and food to eat.


Cons about travelling
Not that I have a child but I have friends that do and for me, I feel that having a child is kind of similar to travelling in that there are bad parts to it but you don't really think about them or dwell on them or talk about them much and only celebrate the good parts of it. Because I travel alone I have way too much time to dwell on my thoughts and if you could read my mind.. well I'm sure I'd bore everyone and sound like a great big whinger so I prefer to just talk about the positive things about my trips and decorate them with happy shiny photos :) However there are some things which I realise piss me off and will continue to do so for a long time...
•  People who walk really slowly and block pedestrian traffic, OR people who suddenly stop (usually to send/read a text message on their phone) right in the middle of a very crowded and busy footpath! THAT shits me. If they were a car they'd cause a major accident.
•  Having noone to mind my bags when I just need to do something quickly like go to the toilet. Even worse when there are stairs involved which, being Europe, there usually are. So I have to drag my bags with me everywhere I go which is extremely tiring when I'm already tired. I think that's my number one pet peeve of travelling alone. Figuring out how to deal with my bags/property.
•  No signs or maps. Oh this doesn't need explanation!
•  Smokers who smoke at the train's door so that the smoke all comes inside the train anyway. Smokers in general :P

I think that's about it actually. I don't complain that much afterall.. hahahaa...

There are probably loads of typos in this but meh... I am so tired I arrived in Florence 5 hours ago and didn't do a single thing apart from buy something to eat for dinner.

I only realised too late that perhaps it wasn't exactly the smartest thing to decide to go to Florence and Rome right in the middle of Easter! HAHAHA

In any case, Happy Easter Everyone / Joyeuses Pâques à vous tous !

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